Reaper

'Ava, do it' I said as I looked at the approaching group of apes.

They are all different shapes and colors, the first group I run into didn't see me coming at all because of Ava.

She created a dome around us while bending the light inwards making us look like a fast moving black sphere.

In the dead of the night it looks as if I disappear into thin air.

The biggest issue was maintaining a steady flow of air.

She had to make three different spheres around us.

Each one doing a separate job, just like my grenades but with more finesse.

I was surrounded by her energy, every breath felt like I was literally swallowing her.

She was connected to me much more then I could handle, physically and mentally.

She felt my distress and brought in more oxygen but in the process released more of her energy making my veins bulge as I moved on a mana platform.

The synergy was great for manipulating mana together, but my body was being pushed to the limit.

We alternated frequently between what I called dark mana and running, making sure to lose any pursuing eyes above and below.

'And you thought I was being paranoid' I said while luring more and more of the apes to the rising landscape.

'What is wrong with these things, don't they realize that we mean them no harm'?

'Speak for yourself' I said as I launched another arrow, piercing a lung then running for dear life.

I was out of arrows so I dropped the dead weight of the bow and quiver and moved on.

The field of flowers began to have large jagged risings separated by miles of space.

I lured as many as I could to the nearest rising that looked like a place where cartoon lions would hash out their family problems.

I use the terrain to escape, as soon as I reach the peak I jump off the cliff, enveloped in a shroud of dark mana.

I kill, run and repeat.

These things obviously picked tonight because it was a dark moon, but things didn't work out like they expected.

Unknown to me two days is how long it takes word to travel, even though the Wuu are plenty.

What bothered Ava was when I killed the smaller ones first, she thought they still had a chance to run.

But I wasn't planning on letting them live, and it agitated them more when I killed the smaller and younger ones.

Ho'thaws dagger flew as I flung it through a double circle array and it turned into a sharp projectile going through the thick chest of the apes.

The lingering mana on the blade allowed me to recall it, but only for a few seconds after tossing it otherwise the energy would dissipate.

It was a one time deal as the array would dissipate once the blade flew through it.

The blade flew back into my hand and I ran back to the rising landscape bringing another dozen with me.

To the apes I looked like a ghost that disappeared as fast as I struck.

The seed of fear was planted in their hearts.

Reaching the landscape again I don't go dark, I run around as fast as I can.

The troop that was once separated like a moving patrol across the fields was now closely chasing after me with a glow in their eyes.

I smelled of the blood of their kin, at this point it didn't matter if the apes thought the skinny human was a demon or not.

He had killed to many of their own, it was personal.

Looking back I see them all huddled like a pack of migrating buffalos.

'Ava do it now'.

'No' she replied firmly.

'Fine, no flowers for a week'.

'NO'! her pained cry rang in between my ears as if someone had walked into my ear canal and started screaming.

Sheathing the daggers and slowing my run I bring my hands together as I create another array.

A burst of white shimmering light came out of my body and began to form in the sky above me.

Interlocking my fingers the energy condensed into a mass the size of a fist.

Placing my palms above each other the mass turned into a sheet that got wider and wider until it was right above the apes who are stopping one by one, the light show scaring and entrancing them.

They knew what mana was, the strongest of the troops could use mana to make themselves stronger than the jaws of a water beam (furry crocodile).

Some began to run immediatly but the white sheet extended out until its edges reached the center of the throng.

It curved up into a big ball that shrunk and exploded right as the first of the apes was going to reach me.

I was flung back and so where the other apes, but unlike them I was in control of the explosion, thickening the mana on my side of the sphere to avoid the kinetic wave.

Those that where not blown to bits at the point of detonation where flung either into the fields or towards the huge landscape.

From the angle of the explosion they fly past me and towards the slope that angles upwards where other apes of all sizes are running towards the blast, some on two feet and others on all fours.

I disappeared right in front of their faces making them scream and howl in frustration.

To their surprise I appeared in front of the largest Orangutan that was charging in front of the troop.

I sliced horizontally across it's eyes, blinding it then stabbing Jashas dagger into its chest while holding it in a reverse grip.

Gravity dragged me down, due to fast thinking my vision slowed down enough to notice the delay in blood spray.

I didn't avoid it, welcoming the warm stream I coat myself in the blood and bile of the battle.

I skip backwards once and position myself where the head would be caught by me.

I grip it by the neck and keep it's head lifted over my shoulder while pointing my dagger to the right.

They all started moving when I landed and raised my arm.

But it was too late.

The mana began it's process of condensing using the dagger as a conduit, from energy into matter it only took moments to trap the air.

They are one yard away when I disappear and the explosion goes off above the Orangutan body.

It was not as large as the grenade before but the closest ones are hit with the blast sheering off their skin and muscles from their faces before sending them flying back.

The closest one to the blast could be seen at a distance with its head, shoulder and arm missing while it rolled down the slope.

I stood up from beneath the thick body of the ape I cut open and looked up.

The apes stared back at me with a hatred that could blot out the sun.

The seed of fear began to bloom, watered by the corpses of their mutilated brethren.

Throwing my daggers to the floor in front of me I slap my hands together and mana begins to condense in front of me, shaped by pulses of energy from my hands.

I was able to mold and release mana at the same time now due to the pulses from my hands.

Even though the array looked like crap a few pulses from my mana core after releasing the energy would straighten it right up.

Instead of rushing me like before they learned their lesson and shied away from me, giving me the chance to finish the array which was two circles inside of one circle but this time it looked like a Venn diagram instead of a target.

The array itself did nothing but separate my mana into five tendrils.

They are tendrils that had different shapes and sizes coming out and I used them to condense a ball of fire where the array once was.

It went from a faint ball of fire to a raging sphere that nearly singed me until I made it float a distance away.

Waving my left hand the fire-ball followed my actions, I picked up a dagger and looked back at the apes.

Right now they are wishing I would just disappear so they could run, but this wasn't me hunting.

This was me making a statement to the powers that be.

I sent the fire ball flying in front of me as I ran behind it using it as cover to assault the slope.

My feats so far and the mysterious fire that burned in the air scared them so much they ran the opposite direction, not all of them but a good majority.

Unlike other mammals these things are smart enough to feel fear, a blessing and a curse.

I would not let them run away if I could help it, removing heads and arms as I run past.

It was bloody and violent, and lucky for me I didn't find a super ape like the one I fought before.

I didn't know that that specific troop was far to the North waiting for the good word from the birds and the beasts.

Unfortunately they would never get that good word, the demon they thought they where cleansing from the forest ended up being a harvester of souls.

The fireball burned through their chests and stomachs killing them painfully.

My blades ripped open their throats and hearts.

My mana was halfway depleted when I reached the top, this wasn't a battle this was a one sided massacre.

Even when they tried to overpower me with brute strength either I was stronger or my fireball hit them while they tried to get near me or tackle me down.

I would never let them get close enough to bite me, either running back or rolling away.

By the time the last one had fallen or ran away I was alone at the top with a dwindling ball of fire floating next to me.

Those that are consumed by fear jump over the edge into the darkness below.

The tentacle of mana connecting me to the fireball faded and the fire extinguished.

I stopped using fast thinking and began to use mana vision.

Looking up in the sky I begin to make the outline of some moving mana signatures.

Slowly little specks began to pop up but no different from stars in the night.

I could see a small light growing until it took up an entire thumb.

'That's a big one' I thought, knowing my luck I was it's prey.

'Maybe it just wants to-'

'If you don't stop with that shit...' I cut her off while rubbing the bridge of my nose.

'What shit'? the question from her was genuine.

'Nothing, lets go dark and get away from this thing' is what I said to her.

I was tired, but not post Mislin mind assault tired.

I was mentally exhausted from being on guard twenty four seven for the past few months.

As I jumped down and ran away I felt like something was still watching me.

Ava used dark mana a couple of times but the feeling still wouldn't go away.

Nearly a mile west of the battle I hear a loud roar that echoed through the field of flowers.

The night flyers above all bolted from the area leaving me and the lone beast above.

'Still think it wants to talk'? I asked Ava who felt that cry in her conscious, that thing used mana to intimidate anything within range.

'No... go faster'! she cried in my mind.

'No, running won't do us any good' I said as I craned my head and found the shimmering mana signature getting closer.

'What do we do'? she asked repeatedly only to be met by my silence.

"You have to do it...' I said while slowing my run and preparing for the worst.

"But... but...'

"Ava do it.. or it will be too late'.

I was at a complete stop now, I slapped my hands together and began to create the largest grenade I could using all the energy from my mana core.

'Either you do it or we are dead, that means no flowers, no honey and definitely no chocolate'.

The last part got to her.

I could feel her steeling herself as she created a grenade as well but this one trapped air tighter and continued to suck in the air after it was formed.

It was a mix of my grenade and fireball.

With every passing moment it collected more oxygen, and in turn kinetic energy.

It was a small speck when she was done, but it held ten times more energy than mine.

Once the beast got close enough for me to realize it's actual size my knees buckled.

It was moving quietly in the night, if I didn't have mana vision I would probably be killed without even knowing how I died.

"Now" I screamed and sent my grenade flying at it's direction.

Avas tiny speck flew right behind mine.

Mine exploded at two thousand feet in the air, barely scratching the large lizard.

It shrugged off what it thought was the dying embers of a human mage and continued it's decent until another explosion went off.

I see Ava's explosion of white and a figure falling from the sky.

I turn around and run, exhaustion crashing into me like waves at a cliff.

Ava is just as tired, I could feel her sleep coming.

If that thing wasn't dead, I had a bad day ahead of me.

That night word of the demon died and the legend of the Reaper of Little Mountain was born.